Jarak Qaribak
WORLD CIRCUIT
8/10
THE Middle East is, to put it lightly, a complex region; especially so if you expand your view to include Arabic North Africa and the land stretching across to the Oxus, most of which comprises the ‘Middle World’ according to writer Tamim Ansary. It’s an area that’s been crucial to humanity, historically a cradle of civilisation, culture and learning, yet in recent centuries it’s been repeatedly failed, pillaged and divided by poor rulers and imperialist outsiders.
Yet one thing that vaguely unites the Middle East, despite its myriad peoples and cultural currents imprisoned in often arbitrary national boundaries, is music. Most strikingly, their strong modal sense, with melodies slipping fluidly